Second place for Alejandro in Valdepeñas de Jaén

Second place for Alejandro in Valdepeñas de Jaén

The Spaniard is now fourth overall

The great pedal stroke Alejandro is carrying since the very start of the 2013 Vuelta a España was proven on Sunday at the uphill finish of El Chaparral in Valdepeñas de Jaén. Movistar Team leader crossed the finish in 2nd place behind an impressive Dani Moreno (KAT), jumping away into the first slopes of the decisive hill and taking some meters Alejandro could not close.
Alejandro’s performance, together with a time loss from some of the riders preceding him in the overall, allowed him jumping into 4th overall, two seconds behind third-placed Vincenzo Nibali (AST) and twenty-second off the pace of new GC leader Moreno.

Alejandro’s quotes (audio available below):

“It was a really hard finish and we could tackle it in the best of ways. The team worked hard into the penultimate climb to keep all attacks close, and Katusha also put some riders at the front to complete the chase. Dani went really strong, I hesitated for a bit, and when I wanted to react, it was impossible to get to his wheel. Dani is, together with Purito, the best rider in such finishes, an amazing rider – hats off to him, they proved to be in really great condition. It seems like the story is up to the two of them and myself in these uphill sprints, but there’s still a long way to go in the race. Even though Dani is also gaining time, we get some seconds day after day and we’re happy with that. The real mountains will start tomorrow – it will be quite a harder stage than the previous ones and we’ll see how we really feel.”